AAI: Amritsar airport fastest growing in 2018

New Delhi: In terms of passenger growth, Amritsar, Bagdogra and Patna were the fastest growing big Indian airports in 2018 as compared to the previous year, Airports Authority of India (AAI) data reveals.
Among big airports – that handle over 20 lakh passengers yearly – Amritsar logged the highest passenger growth with a 48.1% increase in flyer number in 2018 over 2017. Bagdogra and Patna followed closely at 48% and 47.3% growth, respectively.

Ironically, almost all the airports handle traffic way beyond their built capacity resulting in choked terminals and runways. While India has been the world’s fastest-growing aviation market globally in the past few years, airport infrastructure hasn’t developed at the same pace.

The story was the same for AAI airports, as well as the JV ones like those in Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Mumbai’s CSIA has no scope to grow and the mega city will now see more flight capacity only when the second airport hopefully opens in Navi Mumbai 4-5 years later. The overall passenger numbers for 2018 are yet to be issued by the DGCA. “We have collected data for the 21 airports (AAI-run and not the JV ones at Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi) that handled over 20 lakh passengers last year. The growth has been phenomenal,” said a senior AAI official.
12/01/19 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India